[Game Thread] Freedom

[mountainbound]

In the time before Adhan, the half-giants make their rounds. As they approach the Kreen shanty, Maunek and Basha dart out, tossing rocks up into the air in a miserable attempt to juggle. With Dravor's help, they’ve even prepared a little rhyme about the forbidden love between a man and a belgoi, but the verses are truly too horrible to mention. [No one said exactly how you planned to distract them. *grin*]

The half-giants don’t seem amused. The whip cracks and Maunek takes the brunt of their beating. Soon they crawl back toward the shanty where Lanina sits in contemplation, hoping their efforts were not in vain. Was she able to make her mystical connection with the elements? Was she able to concentrate as the whip cracked just outside? Only time will tell. The Adhani singers begin calling out over Tyr, and the slaves are all marched off to work.

Some trudge out of the pens and begin sliding brick sleds up the side of the giant pyramid. Others take up earth-caked poles, wading into the mud pool to mix water with clay and hoping no chiggers have crawled in during the night. Others pull heavy carts of dirty liquid to pour into the mud, or shovel slop into wooden molds headed for the kilns.

Whatever the job, it’s tedious and backbreaking. Not to mention the hazards of drowning in the quicksand-like clay bath, stepping on neuro-cacti, getting bitten by a poisonous chigger, being crushed beneath a ton of bricks, or simply breaking a tool. The overseer needs no excuse for punishing you, and any accident on your part eventually brings the whip. By now your backs are blistered from the hot sun, your scabs repeatedly opened by daily lashings. The air is dry and there is no place to hide from either the sun or your group’s overseer.

To make matters worse, there is rumor of a water thief on the loose, and everyone is suspicious – including you. At least a hundred times a day, your eyes drift to the nearby pile of your workgroup’s waterskins. To have your daily ration stolen will not only earn you a whipping, it means you’re a lot closer to death.

Welcome to the deadly tedium of work on Kalak’s ziggurat.

DM's Note Perhaps you dropped a load of bricks, broke a tool, or simply looked at the overseer the wrong way. Everyone needs to make a WIS check (really it’s a Profession check, after all this is your new job, but you can only use your WIS bonus on it), DC 10. For each point you fail this check by, you lose 1hp to the lash. Please list your current HP in your post, and the number of points CON damage you have sustained so far. In addition, you must do the following individually: Lanina, roll your d100 chance for the morning. Since Maunek and Basha gave you aid, your chance increases by 20%... today you have a 50% chance to regain your spells. (roll low to succeed) Also, other slaves noticed your bubble during the fight, and some suspect you of having special powers. A trickle of slaves desperate for a miracle have started coming to you, and your overseer is starting to get upset at the interruption of your work. If you wish to reveal yourself as a cleric, please let me know, and we will role-play that. Otherwise, make a Bluff, Diplomacy, or other check you feel appropriate to persuade the slaves to leave you alone. DC 13. Success means you take 2 HP extra damage from the whip. Failure means that the slaves continue to bother you, and this results in you being thoroughly whipped during the second break of the day for 6 HP damage. Artek, roll a Craft check DC 10 to make the special bricks. Success means you’ve created exactly what you intended, and they should work as planned. Failure by more than 5 means you aren’t able to create anything useful. Failure by less than five means they’ll work, but you didn’t get the design you wanted and there will be some wastage if/when you put them into place. Big, make a Stealth, Bluff, or any check you feel is appropriate for smuggling Artek’s bricks back to the shanty. DC 9. Success means you get them back to the pen without being seen. If you fail, I’ll post something in your private thread. Thron, make a K (Nature) check, DC 14. If you succeed, I’ll post something in your private thread. Basha, make an Acrobatics check, DC 15. Success means you narrowly avoid being crushed by a load of bricks. Failure means you don’t, and sustain fairly serious wounds: 15 damage. Dravor [on hold until Ravenor comes back] Maunek, make a K (Psionics) check, DC 24. If you succeed, I’ll post something in your private thread. Also, you take 3HP damage from the whips in the morning.

[zebedee]

Basha has had a very bad day. While he managed to avoid the overseer's attention most of the day, he is distracted throughout his work. Late in the afternoon, he stands frozen in surprise as a dropped load of bricks tumbles down the ziggurat and crushes him. But he knows better than to stop working. Somehow, he struggles through, and hobbles back to the hut in obvious pain and distress.

OOC: Hit points: 14/29*. * - down one point of Con, so 3 hp from "real" max. Rolls here and here. Managed a 14 on a +11 acrobatics check, but 18 on Wisdom check.

[Birched]

[2 pts Con damage, hp 20/20]

rolled and shouldn't have; ignore this; con damage at top correctedArtek, despite the rations they are provided, is not getting enough. If there's a water thief, Artek's not surprised. Somehow, some of these slaves have survived a lot longer than they should have, and he can't think of many other ways to do that. He feels his body weakening, and he knows that he's either going to have to make a desperate attempt to escape immediately, or find some water. And if the plan with the bricks fails, he knows that the next water thief may just be him.

That doesn't keep him from perception roll 22keeping a steady eye out for suspicious activity, though. Nor would it keep him from exposing the thief. Though he's not sure what he'd do if the thief offered him water to stay silent....

He labours on during the day, rolled 19 on craft check, DC 10steadily making his specialty bricks. They aren't much to look at, but that's kind of the point. He falls onto a good design early in the day, and manages to do his new job as a slave rolled 10 on untrained profession(slave) checksufficiently well to avoid any special attention from the slave master, which served him well in his endeavour. He passes them off to Big'un when they are done, hoping desperately that the half-giant has it together well enough to just act normally and place the bricks as though they were the same as all the other bricks. Maybe I shouldn't even have told him what I was doing? Too late for thoughts like that, though.

When he gets back to the stinking Kreen hut at the end of they day, he's still wearing a determined look on his face. The day had gone as well as could be expected, from his end. So far, anyway.

rolls (ignore con toss -- was not required)
perception roll

[Admin Chuck]

Big'un, being the biggest and strongest is expected to pull more bricks than anyone else. Fortunately for him he actually can do that, and manages to do everything that the overseer asks of him, as grueling as those things were. He would not have been able to perform so well today if Lanina hadn't healed him as he was falling asleep last night.

On several occasions as he is loading up the sled Big is able to hide some of Artek's special bricks in an unnoticed cubby on the sled he was assigned today. At the end of the day of hard labor the half giant uses his big body to block line of site and stuffs the bricks of the day into his loincloth, thus carrying them back to the shanty.

Somehow Big'un has been able to call on some inner reserves of endurance. While his back is as blistered as everyone else's, and just as many whip marks score his skin, the half giant is able to continue without complaint. Perhaps it is his connection to Lanina, the knowledge that she will find a way to get them out of there. Maybe it is simply that he is bigger and stronger than the others and able to cope with more physical abuse. Maybe he's just too stupid to notice the pain.

OOC Rolls.

[ShadowcatX]

Frustrated at his inability to find the elf who got him into this predicament and sore from the lashes and the work he returns to the shelter in a less talkative mood than usual. Still, he knows it could have been worse. Seeing the wounded halfling he sits down by Basha and passes him the still full water skin from this morning.

OOC HP: 21 / 24 Rolls

[zebedee]

Basha gratefully accepts the offered water. "Again, my thanks. I would soon wilt without your help."

He looks down at the ugly blood and bruising on his legs. He cocks his head to look at a new angle, and then laughs loudly and a little hysterically. "It's the maidens of Grelzen!" After a moment, he realizes that nobody knows what he is laughing about, and he stops, wincing in pain as the amusement fades.

[Elucidus]

Lanina tired and worn out, despite drinking Big'uns water was lucky enough to get her spells back in the morning. She immediately turned her healing prowess on Healed 2 points of Constitution Damageherself, as she knew she wouldn't survive otherwise. She went through her day doing her stuff trying to stay out of trouble.

Everytime she turned around though, another slave approached her asking for blessings. No sooner she would dissuade one than another would approach. She could tell the overseer wasn't happy about this and soon she knew it by the sting of the whip. Her silver tongue failed her as she pleaded with the other slaves throughout the day to leave her alone, but they came faster than she could get rid of them. Soon the overseer found a gaggle of slaves. He dispersed the slaves with a few well placed whip snaps and found Lanina in the middle, curled up in the fetal position, crying. This earned her no sympathy from the overseer who took this opportunity to take out his frustration with the delays of the day on her.

She returned to the Kreen Hut, barely walking. She looked almost as bad off as Basha, though her injuries were caused by the whip and maybe a few boot marks, then getting crushed by bricks. Her body was covered in slash marks, her blood soaked clothing still wet. She stumbled her way to the back of the hut. "We need to get out of here!" The seriousness of their situation showing on her face, not due to emotion, but due to a very deep cut caused by a whip on her left cheek. The blood still not dried.

She sits there for a few moments looks around, checking out her companions and making she there are no snoops around. When she sees Basha's condition, she picks herself up and walks over to Basha, trying to walk as if she doesn't hurt. "It will be okay, Bach..." She takes a long labored breath.

The she holds a hand over the worst of the bruises and she says "Healing waters of life, return the rejuvenation through this man's body." Her hand chills as water materializes from the air, condenses around her hand and drips onto his bruised and cut body like a light rain. Some of the pain subsides and the cuts begin to heal, some of the bruises clear up, but he is still injured.

She examines him some more. "I must be out of practice." she says to herself with a feigned smile. Her finding a new spot of the most harsh injuries. She repeats, this time the full incantation, "Healing waters of life, return to my friend the rejuvenation naturally flowing through his body. Bless him with your life giving waters." This time the healing is almost complete. His wounds and bruises Healed 13 Hit Points and 1 Con Damagemostly cured, he is left with some whip marks and a few smaller bruises.

"Anyone else, have a bad day?" She plops down next to Basha.

OOC THis is what happens when you need a 5 and a 7 on the dice and fail both. You get a whip to the face.

[zebedee]

Basha smiles in relief as his wounds heal before his eyes. "Kakzim, Lanina. My day was torture. What must we do to get out of here?"

OOC: Bonus! I hadn't counted on Restoration, too. Basha's suddenly back up at 30/32 hp.

[mountainbound]

You are back together in the evening, in the "comfort" of your reeking shanty. Artek returns to find that Big’un was indeed successful in carting the special blocks from the kiln.

The group now has two water blocks, which can catch water draining from a tarp, wall, or other surface. Each reserve, if properly installed, can hold up to one gallon of water.

DM's Note Big is big, but he can’t smuggle more than two such blocks at a time. Artek was able to craft four today, so there are two more at the kiln. Big will need to go through the process again if the group is to keep increasing its water supply. Lanina may now use Create Element inside the shanty (I would recommend late at night when the clouds won’t draw as much attention), preserving two gallons of fresh, cool water. My next post is tomorrow, late morning.

[ShadowcatX]

Maunek nods his head to Lanina, smiling as she heals his friend. "Mine doesn't seem to be as bad as that of you two, but the days seem to be getting worse. I thought at first we should try and regain our strength before turning our thoughts to escape but that may not be entirely possible. Still I am encouraged at the progress made so far, and I amazed by your magic. It is only through your strength that we have any hope of escape, but unfortunately no ideas have occurred to me as of yet. Anyone else?"

[Elfman6]

Somehow Thron is holding on. A week in the slave pits and he hadn't had a panic attack since the first one. His body is using water with alarming efficiency and while had his share of being whipped, the wounds he sustains are superficial at worst. The Spirits surely watched over their servant. How else could he explain his health and condition in a place where by all rights he should have died.

The druid arrives at the tent shortly before Lanina's return and begins to rub his muddy find for the day over the walls the tent, concentrating mostly on his sleeping area. For the life of him, he could not get used to smell and been ecstatic to find the scent-covering mud. It is a painstakingly slow process at a pair of globs a day, but it is certainly better than nothing.

He winces at the sight of Lanina as she enters the tent. Another piece of evidence to confirm my refusal to cast spells in this enclosure is a good idea. She could snap any day now. Thron stands, feeling for all the world that somehow he was the only one not feeling the intensity of pain that the other slaves were. "Certainly Lanina. We all need to get out of here. There is no question about it, but we need a solid plan. Obviously, its going to need to be done at night, but how to do it? Walk out the front gate? Highly unlikely since its guarded by the templars. The back wall of the slave pen, however, seems to be lacking the towers that the sides and front have. To me, that would be the prime spot to attempt to scale the wall." He shrugs and smiles. "The one thorn there is is that I have absolutely no idea whats on the other side of that wall. That is a very big hole in an escape plan. On the bright side though," he gestures the the mud drying on the wall "I have figured out a way to keep odor down and perhaps eliminate from our bodies. Consider that this musk is a dead giveaway to our positions and getting rid of it will make escape that much easier."

[zebedee]

Basha takes a moment to look around the gathered group. He cocks his head, as he has shown he often does as he ponders. "Scaling the wall is no easy task. Can we all do it?"

[Elfman6]

Thron shrugs. He doesn't honestly know. There is one option though..."It may be easier if the big guy is willing to give the rest of us a boost. Kind of leaves him in a poor spot though."

[Elucidus]

"The back wall huh? Are we better off..." She coughs a little, clearing her lungs. "Can we survive better in the wild or here? There could be something back there to prevent our escape I suppose."

[Elfman6]

Thron bursts out laughing at Lanina's initial question. Tears might have started running down his face if that wasn't a serious waste of water. "Can we survive in the wild? Are you serious? I live there!" Thron plops into the cold dirt, his hands on a belly made sore by both hunger and laughter.